The capture and imprisonment of Mr Aziz was, among other consolations, a great relief to the members of one of the UN's admirable commissions.

For under the UN's rotation system the chairmanship of the UN's Disarmament Commission was Iraq, and in obedience to the same principle of impartiality the chairman of the Human Rights Commission, which scrutinises every act of cruelty, torture, denial of civil rights et cetera, the chairman is Libya's humane Mr Gaddafi.